Burning Down The Neighborhood: The Jeju Fire Festival

By Matt Scott

The Fire Festival had all the hallmarks of a one particular-off event: horrible parking in a muddy field, traders selling glow-in-the-dark necklaces, mobile food vendors, and music blaring above a P.A. system. Ahead of I even entered the festival place I was cold and caked in mud acquiring queued up for twenty minutes to purchase a Korean interpretation of the scorching puppy: boiled fish on a skewer. It had been a lengthy drive by way of the hills of Jeju Island to discover the site, but the long queue of cars on the typically quiet roads had aided everybody locate the right spot.

I had invested three months teaching English in an undergraduate college near to Seoul and was only just starting to really appreciate the intricacies and richness of Korean culture and historical past. The school’s head professor, Dr. Sahn, had organized a weekend trip to the southern island of Jeju to demonstrate the foreign teachers a diverse location of the nation and to allow us to take part in a nationwide celebration. Jeju Island, the remnant of a extended extinct volcano, is a common vacation spot in Korea. Its outstanding mountains, lovely beaches, and one of a kind culture and background make it well-liked for Korean and international travelers alike. Men and women come from all around the globe for its national park featuring waterfalls, caves, spectacular cliffs, ocean views, and Korea’s second highest mountain, Mt. Halla.

Jeju — acknowledged as the Hawaii of Korea due to its warm climate and consistent sea temperature — was nicely above freezing (while most of the mainland was encountering heavy snowstorms). Our stop by was timed to coincide with the initial total moon of the lunar New 12 months as Jeju was the excellent spot to see the Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival. The festival dates back hundreds of many years when farmers applied to burn up their fields to rid their land of illness, drive away the previous 12 months, and to pray for very good fortune and bumper crops in the up coming year. The festival was banned in the middle of the 70’s as portion of Korea’s fire prevention policy, but due to regional outcry it was revived in 1997.

“There are fire festivals all more than the country,” explained Dr. Sahn, “but Jeju’s is the very best. Nowadays is the third and final day here, and the finish of the festival is always the best. That is when the fire comes.”

Thousands of persons have come from all in excess of Jeju to stop by this festival and numerous have flown over from the mainland to witness a single of the most spectacular displays in the country. Folk dancing, classic crafts, song contests, drama performances and even conventional wedding ceremonies take place in advance of the full moon, with the ultimate evening attracting the largest crowds. The festival was just about to finish when we arrived, and I saw crowds on the side of Saebyeol oreum — the area’s largest hill — apparently gathered for the ideal views of the infamous finale: the giant fire.

I produced my way though the vendors selling food, drinks, and souvenirs, and into a huge open region that ignored the valley. Fireworks set off from amongst the crowd exploded in the air, and kids screamed as bangers went off on the ground, when some others covered their ears and hid amongst the legs of their dad and mom. Numerous individuals had been taking part in with burning cans that were suspended on a prolonged wire.

“This is a folk game. Jwibul nori we get in touch with it right here,” explained a young guy who was in the approach of lighting each can and passing it to his pals. “We put a smaller fire in a tin can and swing it all-around on this wire.”

From a distance it appeared that huge halos of fire were surrounding people today, only to disappear as their arms grew exhausted and they rest the can back on the ground. As soon as they halt, people crowded round the tins, rubbing their hands to hold warm. As more fireworks have been set off from the crowd, shouts and screams broke up the singing and dancing as individuals avoided a stray projectile. It whizzed by way of the crowd ahead of exploding, with no incident, up coming to 1 of the transportable toilet blocks.

I could see a significant, unlit bonfire that was created in the valley. Unimpressive to me, its size did not seem sufficient to warrant the size of audience gathered all over. I was nonetheless unaware of what was about to transpire and was a small disappointed to see a rather tiny dimension of tinder and sticks. Even as a precession of burning torches manufactured its way past the crowd and towards the bonfire, the 15-foot large pile of dry wood did not appear as if it would be notably exciting as soon as ablaze.

The torch holders surrounded the fire. Dressed in white robes they resembled a medieval burning at the stake. The occasions had a rather eerie touch to it at to start with, but as a volleys of torches had been thrown onto the bonfire, the crowd erupted into cheers and the festival environment returned with a bang. Big flames leaped upwards from the fire as it quickly burned, and the torches immediately disappeared into the raging fire as the white robes produced their fast retreat.

Various huge bangs out of the blue echoed across the valley and flares exploded from the fire and streamed into the hill opposite the crowd. The place they landed, smaller sized fires started to burn, beginning an spectacular chain response: fireworks exploded from these fires, arching above the hill to land in parts further away, starting little fires of their very own. These fires then started to spread quickly and eat the tinder on the hill. Within minutes, only a single, massive orange curtain of flame danced across the hill.

With the exception of a few festival bonfires I had by no means witnessed a really wild fire, and I was consumed by a maybe primeval fascination of viewing giant flames reach into the sky. What commenced as a small fire in the valley under now stretched its way to the quite crest of the hill. Remarkably, I could come to feel my entire body temperature rise as a outcome of the extreme heat from the flames penetrated hundreds of meters into the crowd.

I forced myself to flip away from the spectacle to take into account what had occurred. Had a thing gone terribly wrong? I looked across the crowd, expecting probably terror and panic, but the vibrant faces and cheers indicated otherwise. It was this that 1000's of persons had come to witness, not just a smaller bonfire and a number of fireworks as I’d been expecting.

The fire burned swiftly and quickly the cracking of the tinder and the flickering of the flames began to fade away. As the last of the flames disappeared into the blackness of the night, fireworks rocketed into the sky from the valley. On the crest of the hill dozens of persons dressed in white robes swung fire cans, forming a line of fire rings stretching across the horizon. The hill has returned to a dark silhouette towards the night sky but a fire in the middle of the hill nevertheless burned brightly. Korean letters spelling out “Happy New Year” glowed deep red towards the black ashes surrounding it — the only remaining indication that anything had occurred.

As the crowds dispersed and the last fireworks fell to earth, the embers on the hill finally faded into black. Over the hills was a vibrant, new moon, illuminating the mountains of Jeju and welcoming the start out of new 12 months.